Measures to intensify property control under study

China is studying new measures to strengthen the government's control of the property market, the national housing authority said Thursday.

An official with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD) said the ministry is closely monitoring changes in the real estate market and working with related authorities to study ways to reinforce the government's property controls.

Real estate prices have shown signs of rebounding in recent months after the government injected cash into the economy by cutting interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio for banks to shore up growth.

In July, 50 cities out of a statistical pool of 70 major Chinese cities recorded higher new home prices than a month earlier, official data showed.

The property market will stay stable, the official said, citing slight drops in home transactions in some cities since the beginning of August.

The official also attributed the warming real estate market to more new projects in the market and drops in home loan rates, which have lured first-time buyers.

The government has ordered local authorities to correct policy deviations, adding that no local governments may relax property controls for any reason, the official said.

China has adopted a raft of tightening measures, including higher down payments, home purchase limits and property tax trials, since 2010 to contain runaway property prices.

However, some local governments have moved to relax purchase restrictions and subsidize home purchases, as the shrinking property market has depressed local fiscal revenues.